

News
Tesla lowers price of China Model 3 to undercut BMW and Mercedes in strategic play
Tesla reduced the price of its Rear-Wheel Drive Made-in-China (MIC) Model 3 to RMB 299,050 or $42,919 after government subsidies. The price of the mass-produced electric sedan was initially pegged at $50,000, but in a surprise update on Friday, the Elon Musk-led electric carmaker lowered its price beneath a major psychological barrier of RMB 300,000, just days before the significant January 7 date. The price of the Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive Model 3 Long Range and Performance variant remains the same at 439,900 yuan ($63,086) and 509,900 yuan ($73,124), respectively.
The 16 percent price reduction on locally-produced Model 3 is made possible by new energy subsidies recently announced by the Chinese government. Tesla offers as much as RMB 24,750 savings for private purchases and RMB 17,325 for those operating new energy passenger cars. The Tesla China website now displays the adjusted prices of the locally-made Model 3s.
Tesla’s price reduction puts Model 3 in a category that’s strategically aimed at the entry-level luxury sedan category, with concentrations on Mercedes C Class and BMW 3 Series.
The question is if you were a Chinese customer, what would you buy?
1. A Tesla Model 3 starting at ¥299,050
2. A BMW 3 Series starting at ¥313,900
3. A Mercedes C300 starting at ¥308,000— Legacy 🚗 is f**ked (@tesla4k) January 3, 2020
Here comes the first order confirmation right after MIC #Model3 price drop today. More sales are on the way. Now Model 3 costs less than Merc C Class and BMW 3 Series. More young ppl will be able to afford Model 3s. Shoutout to @elonmusk @teslacn pic.twitter.com/A5S8qWcrif
— Ray (@ray4tesla) January 3, 2020
The latest development follows the announcement of the electric carmaker that the second round of Made-in-China Model 3 deliveries will happen on Jan. 7 at the Gigafactory Shanghai facility where the first 15 units of the mass-produced electric sedan were symbolically handed over to employees of Tesla.
The company also revealed during the Gigafactory 3 Delivery Ceremony that 30 percent of the parts used to build the Model 3 in China is locally-sourced, but with plans to completely localize its supply chain and open the possibility to more price adjustments in the future.
The cheaper entry-level Model 3 can help Tesla lure more customers away from local electric car makers and global brands in the largest EV market in the world. Tesla believes China could become the biggest market for its Model 3 and it might well be a key market that can help it achieve sustained profitability.
Recently, Tesla also announced that the Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai has achieved its Model 3 production goal and has been rolling out 280 cars per 10-hour shift or roughly 1,500 units a week. It plans to ramp up production and will likely hit 3,000 Model 3 a week when more production workers join the frontline.
The China arm of the Palo Alto, California-based company has been doing a hiring spree to add more people to help in different production line positions such as quality control, welding, painting, powertrain, and assembly, among others.
The first deliveries of the Made-in-China Model 3 happened exactly 357 days after the Gigafactory facility broke ground, an amazing feat for the first car plant in China wholly owned by a foreign carmaker.
News
Tesla appears to have teased a long-awaited Model Y trim for a Friday launch
The company posted it with its Europe & Middle East account, and it appears to be a Model Y Performance, which has been spotted testing at the famed Nurburgring in Germany.

Tesla appears to have teased a long-awaited Model Y trim for a launch on Friday.
The company posted it with its Europe & Middle East account, and it appears to be a Model Y Performance, which has been spotted testing at the famed Nurburgring in Germany.
Tesla has teased a video of the Model Y Performance from its European X account
We’ve been waiting for this trim of the Model Y for a very long timepic.twitter.com/izXviZKs4X
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 27, 2025
The Model Y Performance became a big-time hit after it packed the family-style interior with lightning-fast acceleration, speed, and handling.
As Tesla transitioned the Model Y into the updated “Juniper” design, the company took its time to create an even better vehicle with the new Performance configuration.
It has surely taken its time, but the vehicle appears to have undergone some exterior changes to enhance aerodynamics, handling, and overall performance.
We recently went into what was different about the test units spotted at Nurburgring in an article, but we’ll also list them here:
- New 21″ wheels
- All black headliner, a big change that was included in the Model Y L, the first time a Model Y has had that option
- Updated brakes
- Bucket seats that appear to be similar to the new Model Y L in China
- New Carbon Fiber Spoiler
- Performance Badging
- Changes to both the front and rear bumper
- Suspension with Adaptive Dampers
Tesla Model Y Performance zips around Nurburgring with new features
It does not seem like there’s much else it could be, but it is important to note that Tesla has been developing a handful of affordable models. There is a possibility that Tesla could launch one of these on Friday, but it seems unlikely.
The affordable models will likely be coming to the United States or China before they would in Europe.
They would be developed at Gigafactory Texas or Gigafactory Shanghai. The company stated in its Q2 Earnings Shareholder Deck that it had continued to expand its vehicle offerings and successfully manufactured the first builds of a more affordable model in June.
Volume production is planned for the second half of 2025.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 10 was so successful, it’s breaking the anti-Musk narrative
That’s all the proof one could need about the undeniable success of Starship Flight 10.

Starship Flight 10 was a huge success for SpaceX. When both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship Upper Stage successfully landed on their designated splashdown zones, the space community was celebrating.
The largest and most powerful rocket in the world had successfully completed its tenth test flight. And this time around, there were no rapid unscheduled disassemblies during the mission.
As per SpaceX in a statement following Flight 10, “every major objective was met, providing critical data to inform designs of the next generation Starship and Super Heavy.” The private space enterprise also stated that Flight 10 provided valuable data by stressing the limits of Starship’s capabilities.
With all of Flight 10’s mission objectives met, one would think that it would be pretty easy to cover the story of Starship’s successful tenth test flight. But that’s where one would be wrong, because Elon Musk companies, whether it be Tesla or SpaceX or xAI, tend to attract negative slant from mainstream media outlets.
This was in full force with Starship Flight 10’s coverage. Take the BBC’s Facebook post about the fight test, which read “Elon Musk’s giant rocket, earmarked for use in a 2027 mission to the Moon, has had multiple catastrophic failures in previous launches.” CNN was more direct with its slant, writing “SpaceX’s troubled Starship prototype pulls off successful flight after months of explosive mishaps” on its headline.
While some media outlets evidently adopted a negative slant towards Starship’s Flight 10 results, several other media sources actually published surprisingly positive articles about the successful test flight. The most notable of which is arguably the New York Times, which featured a headline that read “SpaceX’s Giant Mars Rocket Completes Nearly Flawless Test Flight.” Fox News also ran with a notably positive headline that read “SpaceX succeeds at third Starship test flight attempt after multiple scrubs.”
Having covered Elon Musk-related companies for the better part of a decade now, I have learned that mainstream coverage of any of his companies tends to be sprinkled with varying degrees of negative slant. The reasons behind this may never be fully explained, but it is just the way things are. This is why, when milestones such as Starship’s Flight 10 actually happen and mainstream media coverage becomes somewhat objective, I can’t help but be amazed.
After all, it takes one heck of a company led by one heck of a leader to force objectivity on an entity that has proven subjective over the years. And that, if any, is all the proof one could need about the undeniable success of Starship Flight 10.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk takes another shot at Waymo’s capabilities stemming from LiDAR
“LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has frequently expressed his opinions on LiDAR in the past, but in recent days, the EV maker’s frontman has continued to discuss the weaknesses in the technology and why his company has relied on cameras.
He also mentioned the suite’s limits on Waymo’s capabilities.
Tesla completely abandoned using radar alongside its camera suite a few years ago, something it referred to as “Tesla Vision” at the time. For its vehicles, it has only used cameras since this transition, and Musk has never once shied away from this strategy.
Earlier this week, he discussed the reliance of LiDAR and radar by other companies:
“Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor contention. If lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which one wins?
This sensor ambiguity causes increased, not decreased, risk. That’s why Waymos can’t drive on highways.
We turned off radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras ftw.”
Elon Musk argues lidar and radar make self driving cars more dangerous
He continued with this narrative again and mentioned Waymo specifically on a second occasion.
Musk’s focus this time was on Waymo vehicles and their capabilities in adverse weather, specifically snow, rain, or even dust storms, and how LiDAR struggles to navigate in these conditions.
He said:
“LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation. As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX Dragon docking with Space Station. I am well aware of its strengths and weaknesses.”
LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation.
As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX…— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025
Tesla’s approach is significantly different than most companies. Waymo, Motional, Aurora, and Zoox all use LiDAR for their self-driving programs, while Tesla continues to rely on its camera-only approach.
Musk even said that Model S and Model X utilized a Tesla-developed high-resolution radar, but it could not “compare to passive optical (cameras), so we turned it off.”
Tesla developed high resolution radar and the hardware is actually present in Model S & X, but it just can’t compare to passive optical (cameras), so we turned it off.
As a side note, any military systems that rely on radar “stealth” technology are toast in a modern conflict,…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2025
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